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<\/p>\nI<\/span>f you are concerned about America\u2019s future, as I am, I highly recommend reading Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America<\/em>, published in late May. It is the best book I\u2019ve read on what ails the U.S. Beyond insights into how we arrived at our current state, it offers a hopeful vision for the future and positive steps that can be taken by individuals and by the government.<\/p>\n The author of Crisis of the Common Good<\/em> is not an academic, historian, or sociologist but a sitting U.S. senator, Chris Murphy (D \u2013 Connecticut). Because he is a politician, I want to be clear that my endorsement of this book is not a partisan one. I care about good ideas, not party affiliation. I previously wrote an enthusiastic review of Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal<\/em> \u2014 a book published in 2019 by then U.S. senator Ben Sasse (R \u2013 Nebraska) that covers remarkably similar ground. The fact that a conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat independently arrived at such closely-aligned diagnoses of what ails America should itself tell us something important: these are not partisan problems, and they will not yield to partisan solutions.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t tend to pick up the latest book written by a politician. What piqued my interest, however, was the book\u2019s subtitle that implies human connection has a role to play in our nation\u2019s health and that it is worth pursuing with intention. For more than twenty years I have been consistently advocating for the need to increase positive human connection in the workplace as a means to address chronically dismal employee engagement and relationally-broken work environments whose negative effects spill over into our non-work lives. What perspective would Chris Murphy, a man who has spent the last twenty-seven years as a representative of the people \u2014 serving first in the Connecticut House then Senate, followed by three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 \u2014 bring to the topic?<\/p>\n Quite frankly, as I read the book I was relieved and encouraged to see that a public figure has such a deep grasp of the issues he raises and writes about them with such clarity, supporting his arguments with hard evidence and data and bringing them to life through anecdotes of everyday people. Senator Murphy is a knowledgeable and intelligent man with a talent for analysis and communication.<\/p>\n I also want to acknowledge upfront that while Murphy is someone who looks to find common ground across the aisle, he has been a vocal critic of the current president. In the Introduction, Murphy states his opinion that Donald Trump is \u201ca symptom, not the cause, of America\u2019s spiritual unraveling.\u201d He has strong things to say about President Trump and his impact, not surprisingly, but it is not the focus of the book.<\/p>\n As I have argued, and make the case for in my book, Connection Culture<\/em>, human connection is a superpower that makes people smarter, happier, more productive, and more resilient in coping with stress while insufficient human connection leaves people more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, addiction, suicide, and violence. My work has focused primarily on how leaders can cultivate connection within organizations \u2014 their teams, companies, and institutions.<\/p>\n Senator Murphy\u2019s book powerfully complements that work by addressing the broader societal and policy dimensions of our disconnection crisis. Together, these perspectives suggest that rebuilding connection in America requires action at every level: in our workplaces, yes, but also in our neighborhoods, our governments, and our national culture.<\/p>\n In an interview with Katie Couric on May 26, 2026, Murphy phrased the crisis this way:<\/p>\n [The common good is] the idea that each one of us is healthier and happier if we live in a community that is also healthy and happy, in a country that has been taught over centuries, but particularly over the last few decades, that all that really matters is your individual health \u2014 maybe just your individual material health. In fact, what makes us happier and more fulfilled is when we\u2019re doing well but our community is doing well too. And we increasingly live in both an economy and a culture that is selfish, that involves a kind of rapacious \u201cme first\u201d individualism that in the end, I think, leaves all of us feeling kind of empty and adrift.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Last year I wrote a private report on the state of America and what might be on the horizon. As I wrestled with \u201cHow did we get here?\u201d, I identified a number of contributing factors, including rising spiritual and social isolation; the prevalence of chasing wealth, power, and status over valuing family and community; increased corruption; and the threat that addiction to technology crowds out time for in-person interactions. Murphy\u2019s analysis contains many of these same themes.<\/p>\n Murphy captures the arc of our national drift with striking clarity: \u201cOver the past fifty years, we have become a wealthier and more just country in many ways, but we have also retreated from shared prosperity, social contracts, and strong communities, building altars instead to profit, efficiency, consumer culture, technology, elite credentialism, and winner-takes-all politics that consecrates corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n He frames these objects of worship, if you will, as cults that are harming America. Cult is an interesting word choice as it evokes a strong, sometimes blind, devotion on the part of followers to a belief, cause, or a leader or group of leaders when, in reality, the cult doesn\u2019t deliver on its promises but only benefits those at the top. Murphy draws a distinction between striving to make a profit, embracing capitalism, and recognizing the reality of global trade with adopting the single-minded pursuit of profit as a dominant and driving force that has served to concentrate wealth (and power and influence) with a few and leaves many at a disadvantage. In the cult of profit, for example, a company is deemed successful if it is profitable even if it treats employees poorly and does not contribute positively to the community where it is located.<\/p>\n In the book, he identifies six areas to be aware of:<\/p>\n \u201cAmericans across the right-left divide share similar worries about our false cults,\u201d Murphy writes, \u201cand similar hope that we can undo their hold over our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n Combatting disconnection and cultivating cultures of human connection in our homes, schools, workplaces, communities, and nation will help Americans thrive. It will take individual and collective effort.<\/p>\n Senator Murphy sees a role for government: breaking up the monopolies strangling our economy, regulating technologies that are, in his words, \u201cpolluting our children\u2019s brains,\u201d and rebuilding the public institutions \u2014 schools, libraries, parks, and transit \u2014 that once stitched communities together.<\/p>\n Importantly, Murphy argues that each of us has a role to play too. We have agency. We can decide that our neighbors\u2019 well-being matters, not just our own, and reach out to get to know them. We can get involved with a local faith community, shop at local merchants and connect with the people who work there, coach youth sports, volunteer in the schools, and attend public meetings of our town government. Small acts of presence and investment, multiplied across millions of Americans, can begin to rebuild what has been lost.<\/p>\n Throughout the book, Murphy casts a vision of communities where people know one another and do life together \u2014 celebrating the good times and supporting each other through the inevitable difficult seasons we all face. He offers many practical ideas for how we can nurture these connections.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve experienced this. Growing up, there were periods when my family moved frequently, making it difficult to form lasting connections with the people and communities around us. During those times, I felt alone. In contrast, my wife, Katie, and I have lived in our community for 27 years. I love that almost everywhere I go in town, I run into people I know. We raised two daughters here and have been deeply involved in our church, the schools, musical groups, and other community organizations. With friends, we have celebrated birthdays, weddings, school sports and plays, communions, baptisms, and B\u2019nai Mitzvahs. We have served alongside others through our church and local YMCA, and we have been there for one another through the hard times \u2014 divorces, illnesses, and loss. We\u2019ve been on the receiving end too. Katie is a four-time cancer survivor and I will be forever grateful for the many people in our community who prayed for our family, brought us meals, provided transportation for our daughters when I needed to be by Katie\u2019s side, and offered countless other forms of support and encouragement. Their love in action forever bonded me to them and to our community.<\/p>\n Crisis of the Common Good<\/em>, with its call to be motivated by \u201cwe\u201d rather than only \u201cme,\u201d deeply resonated with me. Senator Murphy\u2019s excellent book \u2014 and his voice on these issues \u2014 is just what America needs right now.<\/p>\n Photo by Andrew Moca<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\nConnection, the Common Good, and the Crisis<\/h2>\n
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What Can Be Done<\/h2>\n
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